Deck and Guidebook Set
This review is by Lalia Wilson
The Wild Unknown Archetypes Deck and Guidebook (2019) is by the visionary artist Kim Krans and is published by HarperOne. The publisher says, “The Wild Unknown Archetypes deck includes 78 circular oracle cards divided into four suits: The Selves, The Places, The Tools, and The Initiations. Accompanying the deck is a 224-page hand-lettered, fully illustrated guidebook written and designed by Krans, which details the meaning behind each card and offers clear, grounded explanations of the many spreads, practices, and concepts that power the Archetypes deck.” The deck and book come in a sturdy box with magnetic closing suitable for permanent storage. The cards themselves are in a sturdy round box inside the sturdy box that contains both the book and the cards.
There are pluses and minuses to this deck. For some any non-tarot deck is unacceptable. So let’s assume you are open to just plain oracle decks. A second drawback for some is the round 4 ½ ” diameter cards themselves. They are difficult to shuffle and difficult to handle, and, as you can see, difficult to scan since the up and down are not clear from the backs of the cards. A third minus is the difficulty in reading the book for anyone who needs reading glasses. I found myself having to go read under a strong light and then return to looking at the cards or the screen. All that beautiful hand lettering, and some of the font colors, make the book difficult for anyone with vision challenges.
Now to the pluses! This set of 78 archetypes will cover just about any situation that you might think of. The archetypes lend themselves to all kinds of readings: dream interpretations, literary prompts, you name it. Worth the price of the complete set is a single spread called “The Inner Quest.” In that reading, you separate the 78 cards into the four component suits (Selves, Places, Tools, and Initiations). You then draw one card from each and interpret the result for your reading.
There are six cards from this deck used on the Scopes page this month. (I combined a person and a place for each Fire sign reading.) Here I picked out four additional cards to share with you, one from each suit, and we can look at this as a reading. Though, truth in advertising, I chose the prettiest cards face up, not a blind choice.
Person: Self—a card representing your true self, perhaps your higher self, the self that is aware of the whole and not bogged down in the details. This self is being revealed to you so that you can take the high road and co-create your life.
Place: Forest—the forest is a place of wonder, nature unbound, yet also a place of atavistic fear of all the dark things: wild animals and spirits, that abide there to trap the unwary. Can we be in the forest in a state of appreciation of the wild world around us? Or are we in a state of fear?
Tool: The Medallion—is an amulet or talisman that is imbued with spiritual and/or sentimental value. This medallion can be a gift from a family member or lover. It can be a family heirloom. It is something welcome and helpful, or burdensome. The medallion can be a tool to aid us in our quest.
Initiation: Kairos—is an alternate version of time. Regular time, Chronos is linear and thus, predictable. Kairos is a time-loop, or an “all times are now” kind of time. Kairos lets us perceive and adjust items in alternate time that will aid us in our normal state of consciousness.
I recommend this deck. It will be useful to card readers, but also anyone interested in the human psyche, especially psychologists.